Meet the CultureBrew.Art Team
Valerie is the founding Artistic Producer of Visceral Visions, and an award-winning theatre artist who performs, writes, directs, dramaturges, and produces. The founder and creative visionary of CultureBrew.Art, Valerie is an acknowledged leader on issues of diversity and decolonization in the Canadian arts sector. Her first producing credit was the Dora-nominated premiere of The Yoko Ono Project, written by Jean Yoon; since making Vancouver her home, she has developed and/or produced the premieres of four productions, including Marie Clements’ Aboriginal blues-rock multimedia musical, The Road Forward. A recipient of the Enbridge playRites Award for Emerging Canadian Playwright, Gordon Armstrong Playwrights Rent Award, and John Moffat + Larry Lillo Prize, she has been artist-in-residence with National Arts Centre and Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, associate artist with Urban Ink Productions, and guest artist with Canada’s National Voice Intensive as well as Primary Colours/couleurs primaire’s 2018 Banff residency. She is a member of Canadian Actors’ Equity, UBCP/ACTRA, Playwrights Guild of Canada, and Banff’s Cultural Leadership 2018-19 cohort, and was honoured with the 2019 UBCP/ACTRA International Women’s Day Award in recognition of her “outstanding contributions to the Union, the industry, and causes of social justice”.
Anju is an active, multi-disciplinary artist who has worked in the non-profit and arts sector for over 15 years. Alongside her passion for the arts, Anju is excited about the ways in which she can apply technology in her work in arts and the non-profit sector. Anju's degree in Philosophy from Simon Fraser University trained her for critical and analytic thinking, as well as a love for problem solving. Following her studies, her training was nicely rounded out by her experience working in arts and non-profit organizations where she developed values that prioritize people, relationships, and more equitable practices. Anju brings to CultureBrew.Art a breadth of skills including experience from the tech sector, non-profit management, human resources training, and a strong history of operations experience. As an artist and musician, Anju’s contributions and interests cross several artistic disciplines, an important element of CultureBrew.Art, and she brings extensive experience creating, producing, and showing artistic work.
Barbara Chirinos has had a varied and successful career in the arts. Prior to becoming the Executive Director of the Granville Island Cultural Society, she was the Gala Producer, Special Events and Facility Manager for the Vancouver International Film Festival and Film Centre and Managing Director of the Vancouver Folk Music Festival. Barbara is the Founder and Co-curator of the Vancouver International Film Festival/Film Centre’s Black History Month film series, approaching its 8th year at the Vancity Theatre. Working closely with Artistic Director Margo Kane (Full Circle First Nations Performance), Barbara served as the Feature film & Lead Curator of the NFB Indigenous Short Film Program for the Drum is Calling Festival. Barbara also co-created (with Mexican artist Ari De La Mora) and produced the International Day of the Dead Exhibit and Tour on Granville Island. She has produced several community engaging events including Afro Hair Savoir Fair (celebrating Black hair and in all its glory through film and partnerships), Feast on Film (bringing lovers of food and film together). Barbara now teaches Festival Management at Capilano University and serves on the boards of the Haida Gwaii Film Festival, Working Spark Theatre Company and most recently the Society to Bridge Arts and Community (the Bridge Society).
A longtime practicing artist herself, !Kona has reams of experience in community engagement, extensive event management, facilitation, and tech/social media skills, AND deep work in equity, representation, and inclusion. She has worked with a range of cultural and community service organizations and non-profits in her private practice, with seven years of provincial government social justice work, and almost 10 years of municipal cultural service -- in short, a perfect fit for CultureBrew.Art.